White Water Rush
by Phoenix Pheothers
Summary: When Australia invites Canada to go white-water rafting, against Canada's better sense, he's clinging to the Aussie for dear life.  At least for most of the ride.  One-Shot


_I worked on this kinda as a surprise for my friend Keiko Sahara, who is awesome, as a surprise. Because she is awesome~ ^w^ I'm her new beta so I got excited and wrote this! I went rafting at this place the other day and couldn't get my mind of Australia, and, being the AusCan obsessed fangirl that I am, I ended up writing this~ I'm sorry if it's not that good… and it's really short… but it's my first real fanfic like thing that I've done, so… yeah. ^w^;; I tried! I'm sorry I fail at description! And like, this world totally needs more AusCan out there! There's seriously not enough! And since I'm Keiko-chan's beta, I like… don't have one really (though she did point out one thing, THANKS!) so like, it's just my own stuff, editing attempted as I went along…. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the fic!_

_btw: Yup, I'm like Poland and stuff, and my name's said "Phoenix Feathers" I just like, felt like spelling it funny~ I didn't take it from anywhere, I thought of it myself, so like, don't take it! TT^TT Cuz that'd make me sad and stuff…. And Keiko-chan came up with the title~ I liked it better than mine X3_

"What?" I shouted in shock at Australia's offer.

"Come on, it'll be fun!" he goaded me.

"I've never been before in my life! I can't!"

"Please?" he begged, his eyes sparkling in anticipation. "For me?"

I sighed. He had to put it like that, didn't he…. "No way, there's absolutely no way you're going to get me to do that," I told him though my voice was wavering audibly, feeling guilty.

"Just this once, Mattie? You'll be perfectly fine, I promise! I've done this a thousand times before, please?"

Why could I never say "no" to him for long? "Alright, I'll go, I suppose," I gave in. _I'm going to regret this…._

"Great!" Australia shouted, wrapping his arms around me and spinning me in a circle, my feet off the ground. "You'll love it, I'm sure!"

And that's how I, Canada, Matthew Williams, ended up sitting beside in an inflatable raft, headed down a river, about to go white-water rafting. Though his country was hot, I still opted to wearing my usual red sweatshirt and long pants. I was clinging to his arm, scared already, though the river was still calm where we were.

Australia laughed. "It's going to be hard to paddle with you latched onto my arm like that," he said. "And you know you should really take that sweatshirt off, it's going to get wet." I just shook my head and let my arms lose their grip on him so he could paddle us safely.

We were getting closer to some rapids and mist was starting to collect on my glasses so I took them off and put them into the pull-string bag we'd brought. I tried to ignore the approaching white water and focus on the light wind in my hair, feeling it being blown around my head, until the water picked up speed. "Maple…" I squeaked out, balling my fists up in Australia's tank top, pulling myself closer to him.

He just laughed as we dropped down a fall of about two feet and spun in the currents because of the rocks in the river. Water was splashing up from different sides of the boat, and I tried unsuccessfully to block it from soaking me. We were thrown in a few different directions before we finally floated into calmer water again.

Australia ruffled my hair, pressing down on my head and forcing me to arch my back. I peek up at him from under his hand, blush on my cheeks that luckily would probably pass as heat because of my attire, and saw a huge smile plastered on his face. "Now that wasn't so bad, was it?" he asked cheerfully.

"N-no…. I can handle that. It wasn't quite as frightening as I had imagined," I admitted with a sigh.

His smile turned into a smirk.

I gulped. "Wh-what's that face for?" I asked, trembling.

"I'm just glad you're not scared of it anymore," he told me before adding to his statement. "Because there's a lot more up ahead."

"Maple…." I hadn't even known my voice could get as high as it did then. My eyes widened in horror as I stared ahead, seeing rapids multiple times bigger than the one we'd just gone through. The river was splashing and churning and slamming against bigger rocks that I knew we wouldn't be avoiding. Through my eyes, it looked like we were paddling right into a hurricane. I wrapped my arms tightly around Australia's waist, almost squeezing the breath out of the nation, shivering in fear at what I was about to go through.

Speed picked up again and I could feel Australia's arms above me working harder to paddle in the currents, but even above the sound of the approaching rapids, I could hear his laughter. I glared at the bottom of the boat so that he wouldn't see just as we dropped again, down a bigger fall, slipping into the rough waters once more.

The raft rocked from side to side, water spilling into it as we spun through the river, knocking occasionally against a rock and bouncing back into the currents. The strength of the water and rocking would have thrown me overboard if not for my grip on Australia. Even without looking at him, I could feel the excitement radiating off of him, enjoying the challenge of struggling to paddle through the rapids. I simply trembled and held tighter to him, scared I'd fall out if I let go.

Every few seconds we got stuck and ended up what Australia had told me before-hand was called "surfing the rapid" where we were stuck between currents and in the pit of a rapid, water pouring into the raft until Australia was able to paddle us out. Spray splashed up, catching me in the face and stinging my eyes. Surprising me, I let go of Australia's waist to rub my fists over my eyes just as we went over the last rapid.

Australia turned to face me, his huge smile still brightening his face. "Wasn't that an adventure! How'd you like it, Mattie? Have fun?" he asked happily until he realized I wasn't beside him in the raft anymore.

At the last rapid, without my hold of Australia, I'd been knocked out of the raft. I fell into the water, still too close to the rapids. I wasn't a terrible swimmer, but with my sweatshirt on under the water, the combination of my wet heavy clothes and the pull of the currents, I hadn't a chance at swimming out. My head burst through the water for a quick breath and I used it to shout out for Australia before I was tugged back under, helplessly falling through the water.

The last thing I saw was a jet of bubbles with Australia swimming out of them, towards me from so far away before I blacked out, the back of my head hitting against a rock and making me spit out the last of my oxygen.

My eyes blinked open slowly to see Australia pressing his mouth against my own before leaning back up and rhythmically pressing on my chest, causing my to cough out water. It took me a few seconds to remember why there would have been water in my lungs and to start blushing.

"Matthew!" he shouted. "Mattie! Can you hear me?"

I coughed a couple more times, before trying to sit up. "Y-yes… I can hear you," I said, being pushed back down and held there, the red on my cheeks deepening.

"Stay lying down for a bit, you just nearly drowned," he told me, his hands around my upper arms as he leaned over me. "Are you feverish?" He lowered his head down to rest against mine, feeling my temperature. 

"N-no, I'm ok!" I yelped out, probably feeling quite hot. _He's so close!_

He leaned back up, a surprised look on his face. "You're cold!" he commented. "Right, well, you are Canada, so I suppose that's only normal. Guess I forgot that for a second." He rubbed the back of his head, smiling embarrassedly. "Anyway," he said, his smile fading to a sad guilty look, "I'm sorry I coaxed you into this. You could've… could've… died… because of me."

"Ah, n-no! It was my fault! I let go of you," I tried to convince him. "And I agreed to it in the first place, it's not your fault." I didn't want him of all people to feel bad because of me. "Can… can I sit up now?" I asked timidly.

"Sure," he said, obviously still sad, but he sat down in the sand beside me.

We were farther downstream now, I could only see the foaming water in the distance, the boat had floated down even farther than we were and rested in a small tangle of rocks. With the water calm like this, the forest trees around us, and the only sounds being wild birds, it was actually quite beautiful out here with him. I blushed at a thought then focused my mind.

"A… Australia?" I asked, sitting on my knees and facing him.

"Hn?" he grunted, turning to face me just as I leaned forward. My eyes were closed, but I could feel the heat of his cheeks against me. I leaned back again, letting my eyelids flutter open and see the look of complete and utter shock on his face. "Wh-wha… what was that?" he stuttered.

"I, uh… a… a kiss, I think," blushing and turning away, embarrassed. _Why did I just do that? That was stupid. He'll never like me like that. He probably won't even like me at all anymore._

"Really?" he asked, a strange tone in his voice. Like disbelief. I nodded. "Because I always thought this was a kiss," he said, his hand pulling my face to his own, his other arm wrapping around my waist. It was my turn to be in shock, blush exploding across my face before I closed my eyes happily, wrapping my arms around his neck.

I leaned back again for a second. "I think I liked this outing after all." Australia smirked again.


End file.
